By Steve Solomon / 1 May 2019 / Topics: Hardware
Facts at a glance
Organization:
Syntax
Client industry:
Technology services
Size of company:
1,200 employees globally
Challenge:
Syntax needed a more cost-effective way to satisfy customers’ growing appetites for SAP HANA services without compromising quality.
Solution:
IBM Power Systems S824L and E880
Results:
- 10x faster speed
- 86% smaller data center footprint
- Secured sharing of physical servers
- Reduced energy costs
Solution area:
Insight’s Supply Chain Optimization solutions simplify the process of procuring, maintaining and replacing the technology clients invest in to run their business.
Standing out among the numerous providers in the crowded IT services industry is no easy feat. But Syntax, a North Carolina-based IT SAP hosting provider, sought a way to do exactly that.
The company manages business-critical applications for more than 300 clients across the globe, including several Fortune 500 companies. Those clients were increasingly demanding SAP HANA instances at the same level of service quality they’d grown accustomed to with Syntax. The company needed a more efficient way to satisfy its customers’ needs.
Syntax had adopted SAP HANA early, when it was only available as an appliance. But as the company grew in both size and clientele, efficiency waned. Each client required a separate box for its development.
“Fast forward a few years, and we were running SAP HANA systems for 180 clients,” says Casey Husar, Syntax chief operating officer for North America.
“Each customer requires separate boxes for their development, Q&A and production environments, so in total we were running 540 appliances. That started to put a serious strain on the space available in our data center, to the point where we needed to enlarge or possibly even build a new one.”
The possibility of scaling for growth added to the complexity because appliances were only available in specific sizes. Without a long-lasting solution, Syntax knew it couldn’t scale up or grow easily to meet customer needs and risked losing its install base.
“We knew that to provide better hosting services to customers more cost-effectively, we needed to find a better way to manage their SAP HANA systems,” Husar adds.
Before making any buying decisions, the Syntax IT team did their homework. They performed tests on several leading vendors’ platforms and discovered IBM systems would help the company improve its client experience.
Syntax decided to migrate its existing customers’ SAP HANA systems to IBM Power Systems S8241 and E880 and partnered with Insight to make it happen. Our status as an IBM Platinum Business Partner and the recipient of IBM’s 2018 Top National Strategic Business Partner in North America Award enabled us to offer the most competitive pricing and the highest level of support.
Moving SAP HANA instances from appliances to IBM Power Systems slashed costs, boosted usage and ensured secure sharing of physical servers among clients. The IBM solution proved to be the most cost-effective, dependable option for running SAP HANA to support multiple customer systems.
The successful rollout of SAP HANA on IBM Power Systems allowed Syntax to onboard more than 300 clients in only five months — and provision new SAP instances for customers 10 times faster than before.
Additionally, the solution reduced operational costs, which allowed Syntax to compete successfully against many other public cloud providers. The company decreased the physical footprint in its data center by 86%, which drastically cut energy bills and saved data center space.
“With IBM Power Systems, I feel that we are well prepared to deliver powerful solutions that meet the evolving requirements of existing and new customers,” Husar concludes.
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